Stay tuned to AutomotiveRhythms as we will soon unveil our newest project car, a 2004 Toyota 4Runner Limited. If you know about the 4Runner, then you know that it’s one of the most desirable and affordable SUVs ever built. It’s a true body on frame beast, equally as capable of a night at the opera as it is climbing hills like a billy goat.

We’ve assembled an all-star team to outfit our 4Runner, including Toyota Racing Development, Superbumpers, and to handle tire to road contact, Michelin. The Bridgestones that came with the car when purchased were noisy. Michelin to the rescue!

We contacted The Tire Rack (www.tirerack.com), who suggested we outfit our project Car with Michelin’s LTX M/S2. These tires are simply amazing, and made a dramatic difference in the way our 4Runner rides and handles, and the tires are very, very quiet.

The LTX M/S2 features:

Stops up to 7 Feet Shorter than Leading Competitors.New silica tread compounds and better lateral water evacuation help you stop seven feet shorter than competitor’s tires.

Lasts up to 20,000 More Miles than Leading Competitors.The new 3-D Active Sipes and the optimized contact patch of MaxTouch construction combine to deliver 20,000 more miles than some competitive brands.The process to get the tires was so simple. We logged on to TireRack.com, and researched which tire would best fill our needs. We wanted a tire that was quiet, had long tread life, was good in foul weather, and was reasonably priced. Based on the hundreds of comprehensive consumer reviews on the site, we chose the LTX M/S2.

We ordered the tires, and two days later they arrived via UPS to our offices. We then arranged with a local tire firm (located near AR offices in Silver Spring, Maryland) we’ve been dealing with for over 30 years, Radial Tire Company, to install the Michelins. We would normally just buy our tires from Radial Tire, but we wanted to show a nationwide option for the many readers to this column. The Tire Rack was the perfect option.

Another attribute to these tires is the highway fuel economy on the Project 4Runner has gone up nearly two mpg since we made the switch. I’m sure the lower rolling resistance of the new rubber helps, as does the four-wheel alignment we had done after the tires were installed.

We’ve also installed a set of Michelin Performance tires on our long-term BMW 5 Series. We’ll let you know in our long-term updates how they perform!